Most of the people I know from the industry got out after five or so years, and started up their own small outfits, or went indie. Game development sounds sexy and fun, but unless you're at the top of the food chain calling the shots, you're usually an overworked drone. Worse yet, you may end up working yourself to death on a slew of titles you have no particular interest in.
I adopted the opposite approach because I'm a control freak and can't stand working on other peoples' projects. I kept my day job as a programmer outside the game sector, and indie it up in my spare time.
Don't feel bad if you want to bail. You're most definitely not alone in that respect. The way to spin your experience to potential employers is to emphasize how demanding game development is: tight scheduling, zero percent bug tolerance, rapidly changing standards, performance is always an issue, etc.
actually, another reason i want to leave the video game industry is so i can work in my free time on my own projects without violating these bullshit non-compete contracts.
so your day job was also programming games? can you point me to some of the indie stuff you've made. and out of curiosity - which country are you in?
edit: "day job was also programming games" - i got that you were programming.
My day job has always been outside the gaming industry. I do programming for the industrial automation sector in America. Robotics, PLCs, manufacturing... that sort of stuff. It's interesting at times, but not particularly challenging. The pay is good, but we're somewhat of a dying breed. Most new programmers move into the web apps or networking side of things. Some days I'm not even sure how I got into this stuff!
As for my games, I've piddled around for the last decade or so making old SNES-style games. You can find some examples of my past work at (callofcodethulhu.com) and (http://www.allegro.cc/members/sirocco/projects). I'm about a month or less away from finishing my latest project, so it's a total grind-o-rama around my house when I get home from work.
I adopted the opposite approach because I'm a control freak and can't stand working on other peoples' projects. I kept my day job as a programmer outside the game sector, and indie it up in my spare time.
Don't feel bad if you want to bail. You're most definitely not alone in that respect. The way to spin your experience to potential employers is to emphasize how demanding game development is: tight scheduling, zero percent bug tolerance, rapidly changing standards, performance is always an issue, etc.